Thursday, September 19, 2013

The superkid rubric

I love teaching my Kinder kids about rubrics. Just hearing them say that word is beautiful. Okay, okay, maybe I'm being a tad over-dramatic, but I seriously love rubrics! I think it's incredibly powerful to teach children how to be self-evaluators. Even at their young age, they know when they do their best and when they don't. I have a large "SuperKid Rubric" poster in my classroom.

The faces make the rating system super easy for the kids to understand - it really doesn't even need an explanation. We use the levels to evaluate our own work and behavior. I can often be heard saying phrases such as "Where is my Level 3 line? Are we being Level 3 Listeners? Who is sitting Level 3 on the carpet?" I don't ever rate the students or their work, I have them do it instead.

At the beginning of the year, I ask the students what they think makes a piece of work Level 3. We discuss and make a checklist that I hang near where students turn-in completed work.

Last year's checklist:

This year's version:

Do you share my love of rubrics? Do you help students learn to self-evaluate? I'd love some comments! :)